The Perks of Being a Pack Rat

We all hear horror stories about level 5 hoarders, right? Those people that are psychologically incapable of letting go of anything, and therefore save everything?

I'm not saying that this is something you should aspire to. It's a real disorder, and so not funny. However, I have learned the hard way that one should never delete anything. Especially if one plans to continue their education.

My unnamed, expensive, rather stuffy, but top notch Grad School wants a 20 page writing sample for the application. I believe something stops being a sample at 10-15 pages, but that's just my opinion. What do I know?

Now, I have never had to write anything this long, so I wrote something new- 12 solid pages (because I would rather have a good 12 page paper than a rambling, bullshitted 20 page paper) but I needed the other 8 pages. So I said to myself, "oh, that mythology paper was good, and I think it was nine pages, that will work."

And I went on a hunt for said Mythology paper, and guess what? In the interest of a clean computer, I had deleted it. And the midterm paper. And the final paper from the fairy tale class the semester before that was also pretty good. Actually, I had deleted everything right up until this past summer session.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

By the Grace of the Little Russian Lady, who has officially become my hero/patron saint of Grad School Applications, I will be able to get my fairy tale final back. She saves things for a year.

I have now learned my lesson the hard way, so I pass on this lesson to you. The easy way.

NEVER. DELETE. ANYTHING.

Let's Play a Game

Ready?

Let's call it the "Move to Philadelphia Game."

Here's the backstory: You're moving to Philadelphia.

Here's the object: You need to bring as little as possible for various reasons including
-moving sucks
-moving in winter sucks worse
-you don't want to clutter the apartment

The challenge: You want to have everything you'll need.

What do you bring?

Progress

I need to feel like I CAN get everything done.

Things that I accomplished today:

-Returned, renewed and paid for late library books
-vacuumed
-changed the cat litter
-covered for Lisa for two hours at work
-washed, dried and even put away laundry
-dug the pumpkins in the garden out of three inches of snow
-cooked above pumpkins and made 11 cups of goo to cook with
-got the shovels out because it's now winter
-made a few more motifs for Laura's tablecloth

I think that's it. I started a paper, but then decided that I'm just not going to write it. I can do the next three and still have an extra grade. Woot.
Five weeks til graduation.

Now, I'm going to read a little bit of The Book Thief and then go to sleep because I have to get up and dig myself out before I go to class.

Sacre Bleu! Invaders!

Or not. But it's always fun to work in a Jerry Orbach/Beauty and the Beast Quote.

Today's topic, isn't really a topic, more like sharing and gushing.

This article is about Toni Morrison being presented the French Legion of Honor. Because she's awesome.

Really.
I can't think of another contemporary female writer that even compares. Actually, I can't think of another female writer period who compares. She's just the best.
I know that some people take issue with her because she knows that she's the best, and she's not afraid to tell you that, but I think there are far more positive aspects of this than negative.
She IS the best, so why try to hide it?
Also, every little girl needs a strong female role model, and she's a fantastic one. Little girls need to know that they CAN be strong, independent, confident in their own abilities, and they can rise about their working class background to win every literary award known to man and teach at Princeton.

I have not yet read all of her books (I'm working on it) but of those I've read...well, I've loved them all, that's why I've just spent a blog post gushing about how wonderful she is...but I think Song of Solomon and A Mercy are my favorites.
But go forth, and read as much of her as you can.

Randoms

Eveline's blanket is finally finished. I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out.

And here's a song for you to listen to. She's bizarre, quirky, but I like her voice for some reason, and I'm really into the music.

Vote, Vote!

I know everyone's been overwhelmed with the "get out and vote" messages. But really, you should. Exercise your rights before you lose them.

I just encountered someone, who is a middle aged man, who has NEVER voted. For anything. In his LIFE. Why? Because "he never really thought about it."

WHO doesn't think about the people that govern their lives?

So my message today is simple, and three part-ed.


1. Go Vote
2. If you didn't vote, shut your mouth.
3. If you did vote, you have every right to complain. There is a complete lack of good candidates this election.

Next time, let's all write in Mickey Mouse okay? Disneyworld doesn't have a multi-billion dollar deficit last time I checked. Way to go, Walt!

Get Thee To the Mutter Museum!

A place where one could do many productions of Hamlet because there are LOADS of skulls.
There could be interesting variations of Hamlet too, because there are human skulls, animal skulls, shrunken heads....and tons of other body parts including full bodies (of siamese twins) in jars.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, Ben and I went to the Mutter Museum which is part of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia for Halloween.

We were not allowed to take pictures of the abundance of medical oddities, but you can take their virtual tour here and you can see the sliced sections of a man's face, Fibrodysplasia (curvature of the spine) and a set of conjoined twins. In a jar.

There was a display of weird medical contraptions such as the Iron Lung, the Pedoscope, and a birthing chair (shudder.)

Possibly the coolest part was the exhibit on the assassination of Lincoln and Garfield. We can now say we've seen both John Wilkes Booth and President Garfield in person, in the form of little preserved pieces of them from their respective autopsies.

In addition we saw, which you can't on the virtual tour I don't think, the gigantic skeleton (7 feet 9 inches, I think?) and the...dun dun DUN... MEGA-colon! 25 inches wide...gross!

It's a little gross, for example, I had a hard time looking at babies in jars and the 70 pound ovarian cyst, but I really liked the bones of the fetus exhibit from...when they develop bones to 9 months. They're pretty much a little blob of goo for the first tri-mester.

So, yeah. If you're in the Philly neighborhood, get to the Mutter Museum. It's worth it.
...And there's an umlaut over the u. So it's pronounced Mooter Museum. They're apparently a little touchy about that.

Stay tuned for more Philly News (since I'll be there to stay in roughly 8 weeks) and of course, NaNo rants.